“Online disappointment: Young Tunisian bloggers who promoted and recorded the events of the Arab Spring now find that, without a common enemy, the social media are just a cacophony of divided and conflicting views,” Smain Laacher and Cédric Terzi, LeMonde Diplomatique, Feb. 15, 2012.

“The U.N. Threat to Internet Freedom: Top-down, international regulation is antithetical to the Net, which has flourished under its current governance model,” Robert M. McDowell, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 21, 2012.

This article (in Dutch, translatable by Google) is about the Netherlands looking to amend its law to allow for government wiretapping. Apparently the government is currently allowed to intercept non-wired communications but not communications sent over a wire, and this law would change that. “Government investigates internettap for security,” Ot van Daalen, Bits of Freedom, Dec. 29, 2012.

“Ethiopia: Copyrights and CopyCrimes,” Alemayehu G. Mariam, Merato Blog, Jan. 23, 2012. This article appears to make the argument that critics of an author scanned and posted the book online as part of a deliberate strategy to censor him by bankrupting the publisher. (h/t @contentlawyer)

“DNA McSpray to foil thieves – McDonalds to use new anti-theft spray,” The Sunday Telegraph, Jan. 8, 2012. The spray, developed and used in the UK, contains an “invisible, synthetic DNA solution” particular to each location using it. “It stays on clothing for up to six months and on skin for up to two weeks” and police can detect it using a UVA light.

“TomTom cleared of data violation allegations,” Jamie Yap, ZDNet Asia, Jan. 13, 2012. “The company issued a statement on Thursday saying that it had been cooperating with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (CBP) in recent months to ensure it is fully compliant with privacy laws, and has since been found that sharing of data with third parties did not constitute a violation of Dutch privacy laws.”

Charges were dropped against a TV news photographer whom police arrested while he was taking video at the scene of a fire. The city attorney’s office is also reviewing the Nov. 2 arrest of a Journal Sentinel photographer while covering a protest. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dec. 14, 2011.